Certified Fresh: Chilly Chills Reps For Real Atlanta And Brings Sophisticated Ignorance

You’ve seen the top, bottom and all sides of Atlanta. But Chilly Chills going to show you heart of it.

Chilly Chills says that he is approaching music with what is called the “boiling frog method.”

“People hear some of my songs and just get caught up in the beat,” he says. “It’s like the boiling frog method. You can sit a frog in a pot of water, and start to boil it. At first it just feels like a jacuzzi. But after a while, it relaxes and falls asleep. After that it dies from the heat. People are going to get so caught up in the beat that when they finally do catch on to what I’m saying, it’s too late, I already have them.”

If you couldn’t tell, Chilly Chills loves to use metaphors. It’s that way of thinking and how he applies it to his music that has made him one of the rising stars in Atlanta’s highly competitive rap scene. While he already has the blessings of some of the city’s OGs, he is out to guide people who are his age and younger. Whether that’s through music, donating money to local schools or being a spokesperson for the anti-tobacco Fresh Empire campaign.

“I’m gonna make a shift in the culture,” he says. “It’s gonna hit the fan. It’s gonna fee like when NASA blasts one of their rockets, but says that they didn’t do it.”

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Who: Chilly Chills was born and raised in the Mechanicsville community of Atlanta. It’s the part of town that T.I.’s ATL movie was heavily centered around.

Credentials: Both Kanye West and Andre 3000 have gave him musical blessings. He has opened for J. Cole and performed at SXSW and A3C.

Fun Fact: Chilly Chills is actually a name and a phrase. His original nickname was just “Chilly,” but he tends to be chill most times, so “Chilly, chills.” He also attended both Alabama State University and the University of Alabama to study Communications.

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HipHopWired: We’ve heard Bankhead, the SWATS, College Park, Decatur and even now Marietta get shouted by way of Migos. But Mechanicsville is a part of Atlanta that we don’t hear from often.

Chilly Chills: Mechanicsville is the heart of the city of Atlanta for those who don’t know. It’s one of the most prominent communities in Atlanta. The movie ATL was based there. You had to brush shoulders with people from here if you we’re gonna say that you was from Atlanta. The Braves play in Mechanicsville. The Olympics was there. Magic City is in Mechanicsville. It’s the heart of the city. We’re preserving the old Atlanta in Mechanicsville, we’re not doing what other people in the city are trying to do. We always got our due in the city, but never really recognized nationally. Bankhead is known because T.I. was one of the hottest artists in the game and is still an OG. Then you saw East Atlanta get acclaim with Gucci Mane. But I need people to understand that the reason this city has catapulted is because of Mechanicsville.

HHW: When did you start making music?

Chilly Chills: Music was actually forced on me. I remember my mom playing jazz all the time growing up. Frankie Beverly & Maze or Kenny G or Kool & The Gang. It hypnotized me and made me go to sleep as a kid. As I grew up I would go over my uncle’s house and he’d have Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s albums. CDs were so cherished back then, you wanted to read the credits and see the pictures. I wanted to see why they cherished it. I wanted to be as excited as they were. Then I started listening to the radio, and I would go print out the lyrics to songs on the radio at the library. 2 Pac, Clipse, Eminem. I wanted to know what they were saying. I wasn’t really rapping or wanting to. But I always had an ear for music. I caught on to Drake back in 2007, on Comeback Season. I got on Wiz Khalifa after Prince of the City 2. But I saw a hole in the game, nobody was mixing the sophistication with the ignorance. I used to do poetry slams at V-103 and the National Black Arts Festival. Nobody was making music with good lyrics but just as hypnotizing as Future, with something that Kendrick would give you. So I started being the change I wanted to see. I had my first show in 2012 on the Live Mixtapes stage at SXSW. I did a poem about my friend who got locked up for life. I was a poet and decided to rap. People always knew about my poetry skills, but that’s when I started rapping. In 2013, I stopped playing. I was waiting on someone to do it for me, but then I read Ghandi and he said be the change that you want to be.

HHW: How do you define “sophisticated ignorance?”

Chilly Chills: I say things that would make you think that I’m a stereotypical rapper, but if you really think twice, I might be saying something deep. No matter what I rapped about, I always positioned myself to feel good doing it. All of my earlier music was not as successful because people liked the beats more than the lyrics. At first it was frustrating but all I had to do was stay in tune with the struggle. I knew what I was going for so I never stopped.

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HHW: How did Kanye West and Andre 3000 first hear your music and take a liking to it?

Chilly Chills: Soulja Boy was playing my song “Poppin In Here” and he was showing ‘Ye the music. Then I got a text saying they wanted me where they was at. I met them, and I was very humbled to be around that energy. That was the beginning of the next level for me. It really just helped me feel good towards people I deal with in the city. It’s amazing how people don’t believe until someone bigger than them believes. I knew I was dope before meeting them, but it was attention getting for people who didn’t believe and for people who didn’t know. I’m grateful. When you’re in the world, you got sheep and wolves. A lot of time the wolves are looking down on the sheep following the herd. That meeting was confirmation that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Anything I make is in the air of what I grew up listening to.

HHW: A lot of people have seen your face and never heard your music. You are featured in the anti-smoking Fresh Empire campaign.

I’m involved in that because I’m all about the youth and I am the youth. I was more than thrilled to be asked to get involved. They are doing something positive by piercing the underserved communities and given them knowledge and providing platforms for artists to do more. My grandfather died from lung cancer. Me and my dad didn’t have a relationship. I would have loved to have more time with my grandfather. But since he died from tobacco use, it was a divine sign for me to be involved with Fresh Empire. It’s a non-tobacco campaign that promotes the opposite of what tobacco promotes. They are creating an atmosphere for young people choose wisely. It’s like this generation’s “Above The Influence,” but there is more swag involved and they are more involved with cats in the music industry. A lot of kids are out here smoking cigarettes and Black & Milds. A lot of very young kids man.

HHW: How did going to college impact your approach to music, if at all?

Chilly Chills: I Went to school for a year and semester. It opene my mind to everything. As ironic as it is, i had to go to Alabama to learn that. You have to be yourself but realize that not everybody is going to be like where you’re from. Sometimes coming from the hood we get blinded to things. I graduated early and went to college at 17, I was really blessed. My mom forced me to go to college. I thought college was the government was forcing me into debt. But it helped me. If I didn’t go, I might be stuck in a situation where my mind isn’t as open as it is now.